Cop mom ‘beat kids and forced young boy to wear dress to school as punishment’

Les Steed

May 22 2020, 14:17 ET

A SICK policewoman and mother attacked a young boy in her care and forced him to wear a dress she bought especially to humiliate him at school.

Police officer Destini Woodruff, 26, admitted to the sadistic and degrading punishment after she and her husband, John Woodruff, 20, were arrested for battering their sons.

Woodruff is a cop with a history of child abuseCredit: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

The Woodruffs, from Las Vegas, have both been charged with crimes including child abuse, with police warning that, had the child been left unchecked, the escalating violence could have killed him.

Woodruff, from Las Vegas, has a serious history of physically abusing the two young boys. Her son is known to be under 10, but it is not known how old her stepson is.

Both of the suspected child abusers work for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Destini was arrested after a May 9 incident where she is said to have grown frustrated that her open-handed slaps "weren’t causing her own son enough pain."

She then allegedly drafted in her new husband, police officer John Wesley Woodruff, who was known to his stepson as "Big Johnny" to beat her son harder.

STRANGLED UNTIL HE SOILED HIMSELF

"Big Johnny" then allegedly grabbed his "police belt" and battered his stepson so hard the boy still had bruises several days later.

He is then accused of lifting the boy by the neck and throttling him, raising him into the air, causing the child to soil his underwear.

The couple has a history of child abuse, including two previous investigations by Clark County Child Protective Services, and at least one Henderson Police report according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Prior to the incident that led to their arrests, discipline at the Woodruff home became increasingly violent.

Destini Woodruff once forced one of the boys to wear girl's clothing to school as punishment, police said.

Asked how she obtained the girl’s clothing without having a daughter around his age, the woman said she bought it specifically for the punishment, police said.

ABUSE COULD HAVE KILLED HIM

The Woodruffs – who each had a son and daughter from previous relationships – are also said to have abused John’s biological son, who is non-verbal.

On one occasion, "Big Johnny"'s son tried to snuggle up to his father in bed, only to be spanked as punishment.

After her arrest, Destini Woodruff is said to have claimed that she had beaten her son to punish him for bullying his younger sister, who is aged two or three.

Despite the woman calling her son a liar, the boy’s account to investigators was credible.

Bruising on his lower back, buttocks and leg, as well as the strangulation test administered at University Medical Center six days after the assault, lined up with his statement, police said.

She reportedly canceled the boy’s weekly visit to his biological dad, and texted her ex to say their son couldn’t "get it through his head that he cannot lie and bully anyone ever and then just go to your house and get away with it."

The dad eventually saw his son four days later, and called police as soon as he spotted the bruises.

It is unclear which of the boys was made to wear the dress.

Tests and examinations performed on the boy by hospital staff lined up with his account of the abuse he suffered.

They have both been freed on bail ahead of their next court appearance.